Marie Louise Kaufeld passed away peacefully, in the company of family members, on March 12, 2017, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 90 years old and a resident of the Rose Court memory care facility of Prairie Meadows Senior Living in Kasson, Minn.

Naomi (Sue) Ness, 72, passed away March 13, 2017, at her home in rural Kasson.
 Naomi Sue Dee was born Oct. 28, 1944, in New Albin, Iowa, the daughter of Clinton and Esther (Dresselhaus) Dee. She attended New Albin Elementary School, graduated from New Albin High School, and got her Transcriptionist Degree from Winona College.

Over 130 teams in grades 4-9 will be playing off this weekend in the Pacesetter Region 1 Youth Basketball Tournament at Rochester Community and Technical College and Stewartville Bear Cave Intermediate School.
 
Teams will be playing from 
Rochester,
Plainview-Elgin-Millville,
Kasson-Mantorville,
Lake City,
Stewartville,
Dover-Eyota,
Lanesboro,

The Kasson Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Easter Egg Hunt at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 8 at Veterans Memorial (North) Park.
Age groups are 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9.
There will be candy, prizes and fun. 
Youngsters should bring a basket for their treats. They can come early and meet the Easter Bunny.

Kasson-Mantorville’s Markayla Kujath was among high school juniors honored with an ExCEL Award by the Minnesota State High School League, March 18 during the girls state basketball tournament.

The 23rd-annual Food Shelf Christian music concert will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 26 at First Baptist Church in Kasson.
 
Performers, all from Dodge County, will include Teresa Scripture and her young sons; Concord Five, a group from West Concord; Bob & Lou Clifford; two groups from the First Baptist Church in Kasson; and Brian Knudson, a member of the Rochester Male Chorus. 
 

Kasson-Mantorville High School’s jazz, symphonic and concert bands joined Chamber ensembles March 14 in a band concert in the KMHS Performing Arts Center. 
The musicians, under the direction of Anthony Boldt, played songs ranging from “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most (featuring the Jazz Band’s trombone section),” “Sir Duke,” and “Quad City Stomp,” to “Kirkpatrick Fanfare,” “Walden,” and “St. Louis Blues.”

Holy Moley, it’s almost fantasy baseball time again.
Time to assemble the 2017 version of my fantasy team, Dirt’s Clods (kind of a long story, but it involves news coverage of the rough old days of stock car racing, which is a really long, sordid story).

As journalists celebrated Sunshine Week last week, it comes at an extraordinary moment in the history of this country with the continued adversarial relationship between the presidency and the press.